Injured Cowboys defense lost too many players to remain elite

LANDOVER, Md. — Linebacker DeMarcus Ware on Sunday night was a picture of what the Cowboys’ defense was for most of the second half of the season: Banged up and beaten.

Ware basically played the Redskins with one arm. For weeks now, he’s battled a strained right shoulder that kept popping out and a hyper-extended right elbow. Ware said after the game that he will need surgery on both this off-season.

Other Cowboys didn’t make it to the finish line, however. The Cowboys played most of the second half of the season without five defensive starters, including both inside linebackers in Sean Lee and Bruce Carter and Pro Bowl nose tackle Jay Ratliff.

All the defensive holes showed against the Redskins. Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan said after the game that the Cowboys’ game plan was to stop the Redskins’ play-action passes that led to Washington scoring 38 points the first time they defeated Dallas a month ago. Ryan said they wanted to force the Redskins to grind out the game on the ground.

Rookie running back Alfred Morris did just that, rushing for 200 yards on 33 carries.

“We let them run all over us,” Ryan said. “We could have been better on that. That was by design. We were going to try to take away their play-action, make them try to grind it. I thought we would be better than we were. We missed some checks trying to adjust to it, some Day 1 stuff that we should have been better on.”

Most times, all Ware could do was trail the play. Ware ended up playing only 32 of the 60 defensive snaps. He was mostly used on first-and-10 and third-and-longs.

Through three quarters, Ware had played only 17 of 42 snaps, but he was in for 15 of 19 plays in the fourth quarter.

Ware was nowhere close to his usual self, finishing with only one tackle and one quarterback hit. Ware said his elbow bothered him more than his shoulder. His right arm often just dangled by his side as the game wore on.

“I couldn’t use it,” Ware said of his elbow. “Each week, it was getting worse and worse. It’s just hard. We wanted to pull out this win.”

Added Ryan: “He shouldn’t have been out there. He gave us everything he had. Believe me; he’s given us everything he’s got and then some. We needed his leadership and he gave it to us. He’s trying his [butt] off, but obviously it’s tough.”

Ryan, in his second season with the Cowboys, had his defense among the league leaders the first half of the season before Dallas started losing bodies rapidly. By the end, the defense was a shell of its former self and was plugging holes with a group of no-names, some of whom weren’t even playing football when they received the call.

Ryan said he’s looking forward to coaching a healthy defense next season that could have one of the best linebacker corps in the NFL in Ware, Anthony Spencer — who will be an unrestricted free agent again — Lee and Carter.

“Please. I would like to do that. That’d be fun,” Ryan said. “It was disappointing. I think we were one of the top defenses in football. I think it changed a little bit obviously by the end, but these guys played hard. They gave us everything we had. Still, there’s a [heck] of a football team over there that’s banged up. I know with our offense, with Jason [Garrett] running this thing, this thing, we’re right there, guys. Everybody can see it. We want another chance to do that, but hey, we’ll see what happens.”

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